by Hamel, B. B.
I’m startled and look over to spot Sven grinning at me. He’s wearing his usual tracksuit, although this one looks a little cleaner than normal, and his sneakers are a perfect pearly white.
“It’s strange,” I say to him. “So empty.”
“Not exactly,” he says, gesturing. “People here. Lots of fat cats.”
I raise an eyebrow. Everyone’s dressed in formal attire, except for Sven of course. “Does that make you a fat cat also?”
He grins. “No. Makes me lucky man.” He brings a flask out of the jacket pocket of his track suit and takes a long slug before putting it back.
“How’s the team doing?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “Good enough. We didn’t need you.”
I wince. I only missed one week of work but it still hurts to imagine that I wasn’t needed on my own project.
Sven notices and grins again. “Lighten up, little Emma. You do good work. Very proud.”
I blink, surprised. “Really?”
“Really. Very good work. We finish in three, four weeks max, and cars get update. Boom, all ethical robots, no more killing people for them. Save the world, yes?”
I shake my head, smiling. “Not exactly saving the world.”
He gives me a stern look. “Exactly saving world. That is what we do here.”
I’m surprised by his sudden sincerity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sven sincere about anything. He’s always wry, or annoyed, or angry, but never sincere. I actually sort of like it.
He takes another slug from his flask, not bothering to try and hide it. “Anyway, I go mingle with fat cats. Can’t hurt, no?”
“Guess not,” I say, smiling a little.
“See you tomorrow, bright and fucking early.” Another slug and he wanders off into the crowd.
I watch him go and laugh a little to myself. Sven’s insane, but locked deep inside of him is a decent guy. Plus, he’s a genius. I can see why David likes him so much and basically lets him do whatever he wants.
I pull my phone out of my purse and check the time before scurrying off to grab another champagne. I start to head toward my seat as the lights dim, indicating that it’s almost time to start the show. As I move into the crowd, I glance up and spot David coming toward me.
I get that heart-skipping feeling that I always get when he comes near me lately. Ever since we came clean to each other, our relationship has changed. And for the better.
“There you are,” he says. “Come on, you’re with me.”
“Wait, where are we going?”
He just smiles and takes my hand. “You’re getting a better view.”
“Better view?” I ask. “We’re just watching the command console come online as the Mark 2 fleet connects with the mainframe. There’s really nothing to see.”
He just grins again and tugs me along. “Hurry up, we might miss it.”
I sigh and hurry to walk alongside him. We’re moving away from the crowd of people waiting to watch the little show on the big screens. Dirk looks annoyed and I wonder if he lost another bet.
We head toward the other side of the warehouse. The screens in the middle suddenly start playing a promo video featuring David talking through the salient technical details of the Mark 2 while stock actors pretend to be driving.
“That’s so bad,” I say to him.
“Wasn’t my idea,” he grumbles. “You can thank Olivia for that. Fortunately, it’s only for this internal event. Anyway, come on, we’re almost there.”
We reach the far end of the warehouse. He pushes open a door and we move through a short series of hallways before we finally step outside. He checks his watch and sighs. “Right on time,” he says.
I blink and stare at a small fleet of Mark 2 cars all parked up in a line right outside of the warehouse. They’re almost a little eerie, just sitting there without anyone around to drive them. Their doors are all standing open, waiting for passengers.
“What’s this?” I ask him.
“Local taxi company bought a bunch, so I thought you might like to see them going into action.”
I laugh a little. “Really?”
“Really. When the mainframe activates, these babies will all be on duty.”
“No kidding.” I shake my head. “That’s incredible.”
“They’re just dumb machines right now,” he says. “But once they’re connected to the hive mind and processing all that data, they’ll be perfect smart little robots.”
“Terrifying,” I say with a smile.
“Beautiful,” he corrects softly. “We’re going to save so many lives with the Mark 2. Even more than with the Mark 1.”
“You’re right,” I say.
“And part of it is because of your algo. I know it’s not done, but when it is, we’ll have the most advanced and ethically conscious fleet in the world.”
I feel a surge of pride, listening to David praise me. I never in a million years though I’d find myself here, with this man. He squeezes my hand and pulls me closer, and I’m flooded with a warmth that I didn’t know I could feel. I look up at him and he smiles down at me, and we kiss briefly before he turns back to the cars, watch raised.
“Ten seconds,” he says.
“I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be.” He kisses me one more time. “It’s going to be perfect.”
I nod and turn back to the cars.
“Five, four, three, two…”
I take a deep breath.
“One,” he says.
The cars in front of us suddenly thrum to life as their electric motors fire up. They don’t sound like traditional gasoline cars. They’re much quieter, but there’s a power to them. Their doors suddenly all close in unison, and which is pretty amazing to see. One by one, starting with the front car, they pull out and head into traffic, seamlessly melding into the nighttime flow of cars, and we watch as they disappear. It takes about five minutes, but slowly they’re all gone from sight.
“That’s it,” he says, laughing. “What did you think?”
“Amazing,” I whisper. “Seriously.”
“Beats all that.” He waves back toward the warehouse. “Dirk put together this silly simulation, all flash and pomp and bullshit. That right there was the real thing.”
“How many are activated now?”
“The whole fleet,” he says. “Half a million cars at the moment, although maybe a quarter of those are actually in operation. I’d estimate fifty thousand are on the roads right now, and more are going to appear every day.”
“And how long until regular cars are gone?”
“The sooner, the better.” He shrugs and turns to me. He pulls me against him and kisses me softly on the lips. “That’s it. The Mark 2 is launched.”
“So what now?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “Now you finish your algo. And then we build the Mark 3. I have some ideas already.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Of course you do. It’s never finished, is it?”
“Not until it’s perfected, and I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”
“Good. Perfection isn’t any fun.” I kiss him one more time, getting up on my toes.
He pulls me close, leaning into the kiss, but he doesn’t let me go when the kiss ends.
“I love you, Emma,” he says. “You know that, right?”
“I love you too,” I say back to him, surprised. We haven’t said the words yet, but we both know.
“I just needed to say that out loud. After everything that happened…” He shakes his head, letting me go. “You changed my life. And I love you for it.”
“You changed mine too.” I cock my head, a little smile on my lips. “What do you say we go home and check on the baby?”
“Sounds good to me.” He pulls out his phone and types something into it.
“What’s that?” I ask.
He grins at me as a Mark 2 pulls around the corner, coming right for us.
I laugh and he pulls me along toward it
. We get inside and the doors shut automatically. He types the address he wants into his phone and we’re off, the car doing all the heavy lifting.
We drive back to his apartment where Julie and Maudette are waiting for us. A lot of things change in life, and sometimes they change fast. I’m living with David now, although we haven’t told Julie exactly who David is to her yet. I want to take that as slowly as possible, get her used to the idea of David being around before we finally tell her. But things are going great. He takes care of us, and he spends a lot of time with Julie, more time than I thought he would.
It happened fast, but it felt right. We’re building something together, something more important than the Mark 2. Sure, that’s going to change the world, but what we’re doing is going to change our lives.
We’re making a family. And in the end, no matter what, family is what matters. Family matters more than anything in the world.
David’s my family. Julie’s my family. I love him more than I ever thought I would. He’s going to be such a father to our perfect little miracle baby. I just can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
22
Emma
Three Years Later
“Here I come!” David uncovers his eyes and grins at me.
“Don’t look at me,” I say to him, shaking my head. “You know I have a very strict hide and seek policy.”
He frowns a little. “C’mon, Emma. Just this once. Bend the rules!”
“That way lies ruin,” I say to him. “I’m the ethical one, remember.”
He laughs and turns back toward the house. “Here I come!” he shouts, and stomps off through the living room.
I smile to myself and finish cooking as the squeals of delight and laughter from Julie fill the house. I can hear David stomping around and roaring as Julie runs away from him, and eventually the pair of them come spilling back into the living room.
“Enough of that,” I scold them, smiling. “Dinnertime.” I put the last dish on the table.
“Aw, mom,” David says, pouting. “Can’t we just play some more?”
“One kid’s enough,” I say to David, and he laughs.
Julie grins and comes scampering over. I give her a little hug then guide her over toward the dinner table. She sits in her spot as David and I join her.
We have family dinner every single night, without exceptions. No phones, no TV, no tablets, no work talk. We just sit at the table and enjoy each other’s company. Mostly that means Julie and David make jokes and faces at each other while I sigh and roll my eyes at them, trying not to laugh.
Tonight’s no different. When we’re done, Julie asks if she can have some TV time, and I say that’s okay. She makes a beeline for the living room TV while David and I clear the table.
“What do you think?” he asks me as he washes the dishes. I do the drying and put everything away.
“About what?”
“You saw the memo this morning, right?”
I sigh. I was hoping he wouldn’t bring this up. “I saw it.”
“What do you think?”
I can tell he’s delighted, so I guess I have to burst his bubble. “I’m turning it down.”
He gapes at me. “What?”
“I’m turning to down,” I repeat. “Look, we’re busy enough at work. If you make me a division head, how am I going to spend any time with Julie at all?”
He just shakes his head. “We’ll figure it out. Come on, Emma. You’ve always wanted this.”
I look away from him. He’s not wrong. I’ve been wanting a division head position for years now. I like working under Sven with the other crew, but we’ve been slowly moving away from ethical robotics and into some weird propulsion stuff that I’m just not interested in. I’m not done with ethical algorithms, and I need my own division to pursue it fully.
The original ethical algo helped change things with the Mark 2. Accidents went down, which was expected, but something else happened, too. People complained less when the accidents happened. People saw that the choices the cars were making were designed to do as little damage and harm as possible, and slowly the narrative began to change. It went from self-driving cars acting on their own will to self-driving cars doing the bidding of humans.
Sales went up, and so did the proportion of self-driving cars on the road. Deaths caused by auto accidents have plummeted in the last couple years. There are a few competitors to Envoy in the market, which is a good thing. It’s forcing us to compete and innovate, and it means more people are driving self-driving cars.
“I just can’t do it,” I say to him. “Family comes first.”
He sighs. “I knew you’d say that. It’s why I went ahead and processed the promotion anyway.”
I stop cleaning and whirl on him. “You did what?”
“Listen, hear me out.”
“David, you asshole.” I glare at him and he glances toward Julie.
“Don’t let her hear,” he says softly.
I take a breath and let it out. “You can’t just do things like that, David.”
“Listen to me,” he says. “You won’t have a team.”
I hesitate. “What?”
“I’m processing you as a division head, but you’ll be a division of one. Which means you can make your own hours and even work from home if you want.”
I stand there, stunned. Envoy doesn’t work like that. It’s built up of discrete divisions, each working toward a greater goal. Division heads are the highest you can rise in the company, aside from upper-level management, but I’m not interested in David’s job. Divisions are always built up of clumps of people, and a big part of being a division head is managing your people. It mean long hours, lots of in-person time, that sort of thing.
“What do you think?” he asks, grinning. “A division of one means you’re free to—”
I throw my arms around him and kiss him hard. He pulls me close and returns the kiss. That old familiar tingle down my spine returns, although it’s never really left. I get it every night, and sometimes in the morning, too.
“Ew,” Julie calls out from the living room. “Stop.”
I pull back from David and grin.
“Quiet, daughter,” he calls.
“Yes, Dad,” she replies, rolling her eyes.
I kiss him one more time. “You’re amazing.”
“You’re being wasted on Sven,” he says, shrugging. “Anyway, it won’t be easy, working alone. We can assign you a remote team, if you want, but we’ll take it one day at a time.”
“Why do you spoil me?” I ask him.
“I’m not,” he says. “I want the Mark 5 to be the best car in the world, and I need my best people doing their best work.”
“No pressure, then?” I grin at him, feeling giddy.
“None at all.” He kisses me one last time, and we return to work cleaning up the dishes.
This is our life now. Our work is intertwined in everything we do, and that’s because we love it. We love being around each other and we love building these cars. We’ve seen a change in the world just from the Mark 2, and over the last three years, so many lives have been saved. Still, we have a long way to go, and the auto industry lobby is fighting back against us. A lot of people don’t want to give up their cars, even though we’ve proved again and again that self-driving cars save lives, and people can’t be trusted.
We’ll get there soon enough. David is the best at what he does.
But mostly, he’s the best at being a father. He and Julie are so close now, it almost amazes me. I can’t imagine what life was like before him. She’s so outgoing and happy, and I think a lot of it is because David is such a good Dad.
And I have to admit, I find that a little sexy.
We finish the dishes and we join Julie for her screen time. She snuggles up against me and David grins at me from the other side of her. I smile back at him and I feel so happy, so content, that I don’t want to do anything else.
We’re saving the wor
ld. But we’re also making a family, and falling in love every day in a new way. That’s better than anything else. This man, my love, makes me better. And our miracle baby brings us even closer together, every day.
* * *
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His Wonder Baby
1
Addie
I roll my eyes as the lake splashes up against the shore. “Put your shirt on, Will.”
He gives me the boyish grin that always drives me crazy and flexes a little bit. He does a little dance, rubbing his arms against himself, trying to warm his skin up in the freezing air. I have to look away from his defined chest and abs, trying to hide the red on my cheeks. I don’t need to listen to him mocking me for an hour if he knew I was blushing.
He’s always been stupidly handsome, but it’s these past few years at college that made his body a true work of art. Playing college hockey has been really great for his sex appeal, unfortunately for me.
“Or else what?” he asks, cocking his head.
“Or else you’ll freeze to death and I’m not going to help you.” I cross my arms, breath streaming out white. “Come on, seriously.”
“You’re always so hard to please.” He laughs a little bit. “Plus, this is sort of the point of everyone being out here.” His rubbing gets more frantic, hands on bulging triceps.
“Hard to please?” I groan a little bit. “Come on, seriously. It’s freezing out. You don’t have to prove yourself.” I speak in a hushed but insistent tone. I don’t want any of his jerkoff jock friends to hear me, since they’ll never let me live it down.
His grin gets bigger as he slowly takes off his jeans. I can feel myself getting flushed and hot again as he ends up in just a pair of dark boxer briefs, huddled close to me for warmth. I want to reach out and touch his skin like I’ve wanted to so many times in the past, but I stop myself. Other groups make small talk, someone yelling about his “tiny frozen nuts” and passing around a bottle. I’m supposed to stand guard over his clothes, but really all I want to do is get the heck out of here, preferably with my half-naked best friend in tow.